Choc-Chip Goodness

I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies today. I found this recipe a couple of months back on allrecipes.com but adapted it a little bit more to my tastes - not much, just a couple of little tweaks that made them go from good to absolute heaven!
I'm not a big fan of crunchy cookies - although I will still continue to scoff them down! - and I love love love gooey chocolate chip cookies that are slightly crisp on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle. These cookies were touted as being the best chewy choc-chip cookie recipe but when I tried it the cookies came out quite crunchy - not hard, but just crumbly and dry :/ And they were very, very sweet.
Now don't get me wrong, I love sweet cookies, but I also love being able to scoff down a whole plate of cookies without feeling like I'm going to throw up. I could only eat these cookies when I had a cup of tea to wash them down with.

Yummy choc-chip cookies. Excuse the bad lighting, I was in a hurry to eat them!!

Now a word of warning, this recipe makes a lot. Like, a LOT. On the original recipe it said it made about 18 cookies. When I first cooked these cookies, just before Christmas, I needed to make enough for 4 food hampers I was making as gifts, plus I also wanted some leftover for me to hide in the closet and devour share with my family. I wanted at least 12 per hamper so I decided to make 4 batches, that should make roughly 72 cookies. Well I made a double batch first and ended up with at least 75 cookies :O And that was after eating some and losing count a couple of times! So I'd say that a better approximation at how many cookies this recipe makes is about 35ish.

Yummy Gooey Chewy Choc-Chip Cookies

2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter, melted
 1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 packet of chocolate chips (usually the equivalent of 1 cup)

1. Preheat the oven to 165 degrees celsius (I have a fan-forced oven which seems to run hotter than most so I only put my oven on 155 degrees). Line cookie sheets with baking paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
3. In a separate mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar till well mixed and light.
4. Beat in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla until light and creamy.
5. Add in the sifted ingredients until just mixed.
6. Carefully fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Drop teaspoons of the cookie dough onto the cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to lightly brown.
9. Cool on cookie sheets for a couple of minutes before transferring to cooling racks.
10. Put on the kettle, make yourself a cuppa and hide in the closet to enjoy!

Notes:

• In the past I've had success with substituting half the butter for crunchy peanut butter to make yummy peanut butter choc chip cookies. I haven't tried it with this recipe yet, so if anyone else wants to test it for me be sure to let me know how it goes!
• The first time I made these I added just the one bag of choc-chips per batch, today when I made them I made a double batch with 3 bags simply cos I wanted to use up the last bag in the pantry! They taste great with extra choc-chips but still lovely with just the one.
• The cookies will be quite pale in color, this isn't a crunchy choc-chip recipe which is normally more golden. They'll have just touch of color to the edges but not much.